You’ve seen him on the SMU Boulevard, maybe on a billboard by Cafe Brazil on N. Central Expressway or perhaps a hype video on the @smudallas Instagram. SMU’s 11th president, Dr. Jay Hartzell, is developing a presence at the university and in Dallas – but who is he?
On Sept. 16, The DC’s Managing Editor, Darcy Bass, sat down with President Hartzell for a look at the person behind the presidency. Hartzell offers his take on student life, the balance between career and family and the kind of impact he hopes to leave on the university. From pitbulls and tennis to cowboy boots and campus traditions, Hartzell shares what motivates him as he begins his tenure at SMU.
Bass: Tell me something that the SMU community wants to know about you, something we can’t find on your resume.
Hartzell: That’s a good question. I have a pitbull mix that I walk around with, you know, little things like that. My one true hobby is tennis. I have this pitbull that we dearly love and two grown kids who are now in graduate school. We like food a lot. We spend a lot of time thinking about the next restaurant to try. I think we’re adventurous foodies. That’s something we’re always trying to figure out in a new city, like ‘what are the hot spots that are inventive, interesting and kind of funky?’
Bass: Do you like Anthony Bourdain?
Hartzell: Yeah, I like watching his shows because it’s both the reverence for the food, but his reverence for everything else.
Bass: You started at SMU on June 1, 2025. You’ve seen two Boulevards, various campus gatherings and more. What’s your favorite part of SMU student life?
Hartzell: The Boulevards are really exceptional. I come from a place with a big football culture, but not a big tailgate culture. Just having a spot where people hang out, mix and mingle, wander around and get to be around each other was really neat and lived up to the expectations. On another level, the campus feel is phenomenal. I’ve started to tell people who may not have been here or are thinking about going here, that if you close your eyes and imagine college, it’s SMU. The overall archetypal sense of ‘this is college’ really stood out to me. There’s everything from the museums to the arts and sports. You get a lot of breadth here.
Bass: I saw some of the paintings in your boardroom, which came from the Meadows museum.
Hartzell: How’d I do?
Bass: You did a great job.
Hartzell: Well, Meadows turned over the keys and said, ‘Pick some good stuff.’ A nice perk of the job is having a museum to go shopping in.
Bass: If you could get lunch with any past SMU president, who would it be and why?
Hartzell: President No. 1 [Dr. Robert S. Hyer] would be fascinating. It’s hard for me to think about what the city, the neighborhood and the campus looked like without the whole university being here. When you think back to the beginning, it’s Dallas Hall – and that’s it. It’s got to be really interesting to think about. Was he scared? Was he thinking, ‘Will this make it or not? Do I have this under control?’ I’d find the very beginning of any university that turns out to be a great university, just fascinating.
Bass: As a foodie, where’d you take him to lunch?
Hartzell: I’d probably want to take him to some place for tacos. I think I’d want something that was casual and fun, where we could have a conversation, and he’d think to himself, ‘What in the world? You’re putting me on to something.’
Bass: At the inauguration, the audience heard about a wholesome moment between you and Mrs. Hartzell. She reached to your hand, observing genuine joy on your face. What was the most important lesson you’ve learned in balancing personal life and your career goals?
Hartzell: It’s really easy to let the job become all-consuming. I did not ever plan to be president; I was a happy dean. I’d never applied for a provost or president job, and all of a sudden, it was leaked that I’d be president. We never really had a chance to get used to the idea, and in those early months, and maybe the first year, it took up too much of my time. Part of it also is trying to live up to this image of what you think a president needs to be, which is someone who’s everywhere all at once. Over time, I realized we had to put up what my wife, the social worker, would say are boundaries. Now I have sort of more guidelines with the office that, you know, they can have a certain amount of time at night without asking, but after that, they should ask. Something we’ve done since our kids were little is protecting family dinners at home. I clearly have more work dinners now than I used to have, but if I just say yes to everything, I would not see my wife and it would go poorly.
Bass: As someone who cherishes family dinners with my two sisters and parents, it’s particularly special whenever my whole family is back together from college.
Hartzell: Right. Back when I was trying to get tenure and was writing papers all the time, I would come home for dinner, have dinner. And then often I would go to bed around the same time as the kids. I would take a nap, and then get back up and work until 4 a.m. or something. But, you know, kind of protecting dinner in time with family made me shift my work hours to a time of day when I could do it.
Bass: You’ve published articles in the Journal of Finance, Journal of Financial Economics, Real Estate Economics and the Review of Financial Studies. You’re clearly up to date on business news, but what else do you keep up with? Music, news, TV?
Hartzell: You’ve probably read somewhere that I grew up the son of a sports writer. I grew up with that love of sports from a very early age. I still follow the sports page, and when I have time, I read both the Dallas Morning News and the Wall Street Journal. It’s normal for me to find out what’s going on in the business world. I do okay with movies. I’m not sure the movie phase has been great since COVID, and it feels like there hasn’t been a lot in theaters I’ve wanted to see. I try to watch some series on TV, so I can watch the next episode in my free time in the evening. I just finished the last episode of “Reacher.” It’s very action-heavy, not a deep thought show. I also just recently watched the series about the Rexham soccer team.
Bass: As you enter this new chapter at SMU, what’s a motto you live by?
Hartzell: I’m an optimistic person, I find joy, hope and a chance to do better in the moment. A day for me where I can be around people, get to laugh a little, smile and enjoy each other’s company and hopefully do some good work is a good day.
Bass: Your career has shown your ability to blend initiative with impact, and you’ve seen success follow. What impact do you want to leave the university with?
Hartzell: The hope is, some number of years in the future, that when people are sitting thinking about ‘where do I want to go to college? Where do I want to teach?’, that people are putting SMU alongside the very best places in the country. We get some incredible students, turning down great schools, and I want that to happen more often. I want people to think of us alongside the great urban private schools, in the same category as the Vanderbilts or the NYUs or USC’s. With all of that, I think a sense of protecting the special feel of the student experience. It can be our own version of that, and I think that would be fantastic.
Bass: As a Californian, people do refer to SMU as the USC of the South.
Hartzell: SMU has got that bit of Texas swagger to it.
Bass: I’ll come back home and wear cowboy boots while I’m running errands, sometimes I feel that West Coast country influences me.
Hartzell: They’re like, ‘You’ve changed! What’s happened to you?’ I was teaching in New York, walking through Washington Square Park, in the village, wearing my cowboy boots. I get it.
Bass: After the inauguration, I spoke with David Miller for a few minutes. He said that you’re the kind of guy a person would want to get a beer with. What does David Miller mean by that statement?
Hartzell: I hope there’s a certain image you might imagine, back to those portraits downstairs, where you think of a college president. I can imagine that it might not be the most fun to have a relaxed, chill conversation over anything from what we’re talking about, from food to movies to pitbulls with some of those people in the portraits. I hope what David Miller is trying to say is that I’m somebody who’s sort of a regular human being who happens to have this job at the moment. Back when I was introduced as a dean, I was at some speaking gig and they introduced me as the least intimidating dean they’d ever met. And I was like, ‘Thank you?’ I guess that’s okay. But it is what it is. That’s a compliment, though, for sure.
Bass: At the inauguration, you were presented with various symbols that represent SMU. Was there one that you connected most with?
Hartzell: Definitely the Tate Mace. It’s good to be reminded that we’re part of something really special in college, higher education or however you want to think about it. The specialness of those symbols remind me that students come to us with a really fantastic time in their lives where they’re going to learn and try new things and wrestle with ideas. I mean, college is the reason people are so passionate. In part, really cool things happen here. It’s true for my side as a professor. It’s true, for our staff. It’s true for our students. Symbols that say, college is not a normal thing. It’s not like a company. It’s another kind of place. It really is unique. I find that symbolism really resonates with me.
Bass: During your time at UT Austin, you witnessed immense growth in enrollment, graduation rates and research. What were the pivotal moments within your time as president that you’ll carry with you to SMU?
Hartzell: If back up to even a job or two before dean, I was the chair of the finance department, and I was asked, ‘If you’ll take on this job, the department wants to start a Master’s of Science in Finance.’ I thought this was a good thing, and we did the work. It was probably about two years later, at the commencement, and I saw about 28 students who had started this brand new degree. The dean at the time was sitting next to me, and turned to me as we watched these students receive their degree. It was watching this moment that I realized, ‘Wow, it really changed lives!’ These 28 people who had chosen to come after their undergrad and get a master’s, and we were opening doors for them. It hit me that it was a different kind of impact. I like writing papers, I like teaching, but to do something at a university that enabled people’s careers was a different opportunity than teaching and research.
Bass: You saw the product of your work right there, in human form.
Hartzell: Right? Walking across the stage with a funny hat and all. That was a moment where a light bulb went off for me. I thought maybe these kinds of jobs could be really satisfying.
Bass: In a moment like that, when you realize that you can pursue something more or different, how could you advise students into taking that step?
Hartzell: Forgive me, I taught finance. For the first huge part of my career, it was really just acquiring options, taking on opportunities that will help me learn more about what I like to do and would give me more options moving forward. I would advise people not to overcommit to one path, because I realized I was going to learn as I went. I would tell students, I had no master plan.
Bass: You don’t have a degree progress planner?
Hartzell: Well, no, I didn’t even plan on being a professor while in college. Then, much less, a tenured professor or a dean at a good school, that stuff. Many people that end up in jobs that look like big jobs didn’t have a master plan. We did things along the way. In hindsight, it looks linear and straightforward and that we had it all figured out. We had no idea. People should tend to say yes, and take some chances. If the opportunity in front of you will open up more opportunities later. Then, you can decide later once you realize what you love.
Bass: Although you’re just beginning your journey at SMU, look ahead. What do you want people to remember most from your presidency?
Hartzell: That’s a good question.
Bass: Don’t worry, your response will go in the paper.
Hartzell: This is a very special moment for SMU, and is a really fantastic moment in time where there’s a bunch of opportunity. We got to go, but we got to go together. It’s a sense of seize the moment, it’s a team sport. It’s not up to any one of us, we want everybody in on it and whether they’re a student, faculty or staff member, alum in Dallas or beyond, there’s room for everybody. The feeling that this is really special.
Bass: You’re coming into a university where so much of it and these traditions are already established, and you’re becoming part of it.
Hartzell: The SMU community is so tight-knit, but it’s also welcoming. It’s an interesting dynamic to come in as president, they put you at the top of the org chart, but in some ways, I know the least. You’re trying to figure it all out as you go along, and have a sense of wanting to learn what’s special here. I want to learn what people’s strengths are. I think of my job as an enabler; I’m trying to enable other people to do what they want to do. Higher education is about helping students and professors become more successful. That’s what I’m here for. And a lot of that involves listening and learning, and that’s the team spirit part of it. I always remind my students that if you get to the point where someone wants to have coffee with you, they want to help. It’s fun for people to give back and find a connection to somebody who’s in an earlier stage in their careers. And you never know, sometimes a little nugget that they convey, you may not even appreciate for five years. Then, all of a sudden, you remember that somebody told you that. It’s rewarding for the person on the other side of the table, too.
